[Washington, D.C.]
Bowing to growing public pressure and the gradual but dramatic
adoption of the popular grassroots PennyFreeBiz movement by so many merchants and
retailers, the ubiquitous Penny will cease to be circulated by the U.S.Mint on
October 1st, 2021.

As in other currency changes in the past, the government will require all pennies to be
turned into banks for exchange to other currency by a deadline date (this time
October 1st, 2021). It is anticipated that due to both coin
exchanges and the actions of coin collectors, it is very likely there will not
be a penny to be had anywhere except through coin dealers ... yada yada yada ...

This is a bogus newspaper article ... so far!

AMERICANS .. STOP USING THE PENNY!

Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United
Kingdom and many others have discontinued the use
of their penny ... The United States has to be next .. Right?

The 'Cent' coin (aka the Penny or one cent piece or 1¢) made sense for more than two hundred years, but we believe, no longer.
Depending on costs of raw metal, smelting, forming (including blanking, annealing, upsetting, striking and
inspecting) then counting, bagging and distributing the penny, costs our US Mint
(According
to the U.S. Treasury in 2014) fluctuates somewhere between 1.83¢ and 2.41¢ maybe perhaps as
much as 2.75¢ to make
each penny. Heck, the nickel costs almost 10¢ to make. System wide cost
for merchants to account for each penny is absurdly expensive ... far more than the penny is worth to us
merchants.

Next, add in the new global warming issues of carbon footprint to mine, smelter and produce the metal
and .. AND .. then finally, add in the fact that roughly half of all minted pennies are in jars, drawers,
piggy banks, penny jewelry, pop art, decorations*1 and the like. This means the government is minting 2 pennies
(~ .05¢) to keep 1¢ in circulation. Maybe you will arrive at the same point we are at on this website.

By most arguements, the quarter today has less purchasing power than the penny did in 1940.
[ Money Worth ]

We believe it is time to end the arguably senseless use of this soon to be obsolete coin. Since the
government can't seem to legislate the removal of pennies from circulation, it is time that retailers
and merchants take up the challenge and start the process of weaning our economy of at least this coin.
Members, may at their discretion, take this further to remove nickels, dimes, quarters and perhaps the half
dollar coins. There are retailers out there who have no coins in their change drawer at all, their smallest
change denomination is the dollar.

Members of PennyFreeBiz.com can be merchants, retailers, hotels, restaurants, point of sale software companies
and others. Members may continue to price merchandise to the penny, but pledge to ...

In the instance of a penny, cash transaction totals (after tax) ending with ".x1" or ".x2" will be rounded down
to ".x0" and all the rest will be rounded up to ".x5". Accepting pennies in trade as
payment is optional and up to the individual merchant member.

Penny History

The penny has been around since 1787. It was the fruit of the efforts of
Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in their strong desire to produce a
stable currency for this fledgling nation. Since its first minting by a
private mint and, 5 years later in 1792, by the newly formed US Mint,
over 300 billion (~552,000 tons) have been minted in more than 10 different designs
over the past 233 years.

The penny was first minted out of 100% pure copper. It's metal composition changed in
the mid 1800s to 88% copper and 12% nickel and again after other changes that included
the use of bronze and tin, to ultimately today's, 2008's, composition of 97.5% percent
zinc and 2.5% percent copper.

Come on folks.. this just does not make any cents. We got rid of the 1/2 cent
back in 1857.. Getting rid of the 1 cent coin is way, WAY past due.
The penny has become a social and cultural anachronism. If our friends in
Canada, Australia and a dozen other countries can stop the use of their
pennies, why can't we?

Please support those merchants and retailers that have taken this action.
Look who has joined the movement.

*1 It is estimated that in excess of 80 million pennies ($800,000+) were taken out of circulation in the last 5 years by ..